Advanced Multiverse Navigation Protocol

"Wait up, Collins!" Collins just waved lazily and continued walking, ignoring the honks from all the driving cars, correction, unmoving cars, when he walked to the other side of the road, blatantly dismissing the red light.

Daniel, of course, stopped up, waited for a few seconds, and began running after the reckless man that is his mentor.

"Stop." Daniel almost his balance from the sudden stop (AN: First-Class Investigator my a.s.s). He looked towards his mentor and questioned him. "Why are we making a stop here?"

"Liquor." Said Collins in a serious tone.

Daniel was starting to see red. First, he had to clean up the dead body, then, when he asked his colleague, Steve, where Collins had run off to, he told him that he had 'leeched' on to a lead. He eventually caught up to his useles— dear mentor, only to see the man crossing a road, disregarding the glaring red light and the sound of car honks and angry shouts from drivers.

"Woah, calm down, Daniel. I have a perfect explanation." Collins immediately turned defensive and started waving his arms frantically around when he saw how Daniel was starting to look like an enraged bull.

Daniel looked doubtfully at his mentor, offhandedly noticing how his mask needed to be repainted since he could see some paint starting to peel off, which was most likely a consequence of rain and strong winds.

"Let me start from the beginning. Honestly, I barely knew Brian Fitch, but I did know about one of his habits."

"What was it?" Daniel still hadn't realized where this was going, but that would change in a quick minute.

Collins clapped his gloved hands together and said, "you see, Daniel. Brian Fitch was quite the heavy drinker, and he was even a regular at a certain bar; Poison Ivy. Which is apparently well known for its strong liquor, suitably called; Poison Ivy. Do you see where I'm going with this?" Yes, he could. If Bryan Fitch had been a regular at this bar; Poison Ivy. There might be a chance for this to have been the initial meeting place between him and 'Rose'.

"Okay, I can follow your logic now. And think it's worth checking out, and…Sigh, yes, we can also order a drink. But just one!" Collins' green globes behind the mask lit up like a Christmas tree but then dimmed completely when Daniel mentioned the fatal word; one.

Collins dropped 'dead' on the ground, and all the pedestrians made sure to avoid the 'strange' man on the ground. Wow, guys. He could have suffered from a heart attack or stroke, and you're just going to ignore the fellow? Smh.

Daniel relented and said, "fine, two." Like he was struck by lightning, Collins immediately sprung up, with a straightened back and pointed his cane towards the bar. "To wonderland!" He began skidding towards the store, and Daniel seriously began questioning if he even needed that cane to begin with or if he just wanted to look wiser than he really is. Maybe a bit of both.

Daniel followed, like the loyal disciple he is, and was hit with the strongest scent of alcohol he had ever smelled when he opened the door. He scanned the room while stopping his nose with his right thumb and index finger, looking for that unpredictable mentor of his.

"There." Obviously, he was already ordering alcohol, having most likely forgotten the 'two rule', and was about to use his entire month's salary on this poison, which did the bar's name justice.

Daniel let out his maybe one-hundredth tired sigh today and sat down at the table, trying not to be disturbed by the sixty-something old man sitting on the other of the table, who looked like a kid that has just entered a candy store.

I surrendered to the temptation, ordered a Jack Daniel's, and started scanning the surrounding customers, looking for someone who might know a lot.

"No dice." Muttered Daniel under his breath, trying his hardest not to be scared away from the store, credit to Collins, who was experiencing something which could only be described as 'o.r.g.a.s.mic relief'(AN: Some people jizz in their pants from food, Collins gets his 'relief' from some of that good ol' Devil's Brew).

"Collins, could you get it together? You're disturbing the peace and customers." That was actually not true, as a matter of fact, every customer seemed to be piss drunk or just didn't care about the sounds Collins was producing from the body part, he likes to call his mouth.

Collins looked behind himself, then in front of himself, and said in a flat tone, "Nah. They seem to be taking it well if you ask me." Again, came that shine, his eyes were practically glowing, because, the devil's brew had finally arrived.

Daniel graciously accepted his Jack Daniel's, and Collins almost seemed to be stealing his… Gin, vodka, rum, whiskey… Never mind that. Let's just leave at 'a lot of alcohol'. Daniel faced palmed but quickly recovered from his mental damages and asked the waiter if they have a regular named Rose.

"I don't recall us having a regular customer named Rose per se, but one of our staff members is named Rose. But you're out of luck, she's not in today, and her next shift is on Friday." It was Tuesday… Let's drink to that!

"Thank you." Daniel thanked the waiter and she promptly left. He turned to look at Collins and asked, "what now?" He was met with silence.

"Hey, did you hear me? I said, wha—

"Shh, listen to the old coot. That lady that brought our order to the table." Ge gestured towards the waiter, "she's most likely good friends with Rose. It might not have sounded that way when you spoke to her, but there was this clear sense of familiarity in her eyes when you mentioned the name Rose. I will bet my remaining good knee on it."

"Okay, so what are you plotting." Even though his face was under a mask, Daniel could still feel the sly smile starting to form. He had a plan, but they always ended horribly wrong.

Daniel almost let out another sigh but stopped himself. F.u.c.k it, he was just going to roll with it this time. No nagging, no overly formal stuff, let's do it the Collins Way.

Daniel leaned forward and supported his head with his arms on the table. "Okay, shoot. What's the plan."

"I'm glad you asked!" Collins probably wore a triumphant smile, excited to see his 'master plan' being set in motion.

Collins started playfully table drumming and cackled excitedly, and was quite eerie. "You see, Daniel. Why don't we just follow this woman back to her hom—

Daniel raised a hand before he could finish that sentence, meeting Collins with a disapproving gaze. "Are you suggesting that we stalk a person back to their home, break into said home, and look for any relevant information on this 'Rose' inside?"

Collins snapped his fingers, which almost didn't produce any sound due to the gloves and said, "exactly. What do you say, Daniel? Are you ready for operation 'Break-in'?" Daniel deadpanned at the shameless nature of his mentor, but ultimately relented and said, "okay, but don't take anything from her home. I don't want to explain why a Special Class Investigator stole someone's dog or something, just to tell them that he needed to sell it off for 'cigs, alcohol and other entertainment'."

"Relax. I won't do anything like that. Probably." That didn't reassure him in the slightest, but he ultimately returned to drinking his Jack Daniel's, doing a fine job at dismissing his mentor's strange unintelligible, yet enthusiastic, mutterings.